Civic Tech Workshops for the Fall
The summertime is when Civic Tech DC slows down (a little bit), which offers some breathing room to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and think about what we want to try next.
One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about is hosting more events focused specifically on two topics of increasing importance design thinking and AI. Yes, these could be workshops on the latest AI tools and how to use them. But I think it could be much more valuable to create space to ask a more fundamental question:
What does it actually mean to design technology for the public?
AI is rapidly becoming part of how civic organizations build, communicate, and engage with communities. But simply having access to AI does not automatically mean we are building better civic technology. In some ways, it makes the design process even more important. Design is often the forgotten—but fundamental—layer of the process that helps us ask what problem is actually worth solving? Who are we designing for? And what role should technology actually play?
I’m still thinking through what this could look like, so this is very much a work-in-progress blog post. I just wanted to get these ideas down on paper first and will keep fleshing it out as I think more about it.
In the meantime, a couple of projects and ideas that have been inspiring me:
Also want to do a “civic tech failures” event which can be something like this